Review – Love Waltzes In – Alana Albertson

Description:
To her millions of fans, ballroom champion Selena Marcil seems to have the perfect life: a great dance partner, a hit reality show, and celebrity perks. But underneath the glamorous ball gowns, Selena longs to find someone to share her life with when the stage lights dim.

Selena’s childhood sweetheart, Bret Lord, hung up his dance shoes after winning two national titles with her as a teenager, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He never saw his former fiancée again, except on television and on the cover of men’s magazines. Ten years and three deployments later, Bret gets an offer to audition for Selena’s dance show. When the Marine Corps gives him temporary leave to appear on the series, Bret can’t refuse the quick cash that will enable him to provide financially for the widow of his buddy, even if it does mean coming face to face with his past.

When Bret shows up at her national championship, Selena is shocked. For years she searched for him to no avail. After spending time with Bret, Selena realizes despite their past romance, they have no future. He has no desire to live under a spotlight and she has no desire to leave it. Can Selena and Bret recognize when Love Waltzes In?

Excerpt:
Staff Sergeant Bret Lord sat on the dirty floor of his tent, going through the day’s mail: the latest Men’s Fitness magazine from his sister, a care package from his mom. He ripped open the package—socks, lip balm, sunflower seeds, and a thin letter that contained an old magazine clipping.Dear Bret,
I miss you very much. Benny asked me to send you this article. I really wish you would consider his offer. Please stay safe.
Love, Mom
He swallowed hard. A neon sticky pressed on the wrinkled page had a note scrawled on it from his former master dance coach.Bret, m’boy,
We’ll make it worth your time.
Cheers, Benny.
Thumbing the edge of the article, Bret stared at the sixteen-year-old boy in the picture and could barely recognize himself. His shoulder length, wavy blond hair was slicked back, not shorn in a “high and tight” like his current haircut. No signs of the tattoos or muscles that currently defined his body. Golden skin stained from a bottle, not the harsh sun of Iraq. His arms were wrapped around a gorgeous, curvy young girl with long jet-black hair. The jade Latin gown she wore matched the color of her almond-shaped eyes.
Bret tossed the article aside and removed his nine-mil pistol from his holster to clean it.
Lance Corporal Hernandez walked by Bret and snatched the article off his cot. After staring at it, Hernandez’s face brightened.
“Hey, Staff Sergeant, this you?”
“No, it’s my clone who’s also named Bret Lord.” Bret slid the rail back on his weapon and began disassembling it.
“Staff Sergeant, you know Selena Marcil? Did you hit that?”
“Shut up, Hernandez, or the one getting hit will be you—with the butt stock of my rifle.” Bret grabbed the paper out of Hernandez’s hands, and smacked him on the side of the head. The kid didn’t flinch.
“Staff Sergeant Twinkle Toes. Hey—can you hook me up with Selena? I’ll be her boy toy. I love her. Man, she’s smoking. Has the nicest ass. Not like all those skinny, Russian chicks on that show.” He nodded to himself with an eyebrow dancing. “Selena’s on my list. She’s Latina, too. We’d be perfect together. What was she doing with a gringo like you?”
“Hernandez, you’re way out of line.” Bret reassembled his pistol.
“My bad, Staff Sergeant.”
Bret grabbed the article, his pack, and his rifle. It was impossible to get some privacy in the tent. His only option was to sit outside in a sandstorm but even that sounded like a welcome retreat from his immature men. He walked about five hundred feet, then plopped down in the hot sand.
The red sky hung above him, thick from smoke from the nearby town. Bret struggled to catch a glimpse of the distant mountains. Sand seemed to pelt down from the heavens, blinding him and settling into every crevice in his body. He closed his eyes against the sting of the sand, and turned his thoughts to Selena. Was she the diva the tabloids made her out to be? Even after ten years, he could almost smell her buttery-coconut scent. A welcome change from the overflowing shitters, toxic diesel, and stench of his fellow Marines who hadn’t bathed in three weeks.

Review:
I’ll admit, Dancing with the Stars (the TV show) is a guilty pleasure of mine. I had probably watched it for the last 7 seasons, and even if I scratch my head at some of the “celebrities,” I still tune in every week…so when I saw the description of Love Waltzes In, I was sucked in. The only way, I could really describe it is Dancing with the Stars meets G.I. Joe (I kinda saw Bret as the Channing Tatum in Magic Mike/GI Joe – not sure if that is what the author was going for, but hey, it works for me 😉

The author states in her profile, that she is a recovering ballroom dancer and you could tell that she knew what she was writing about when it came to describing the dances, as well as the scenes where Bret and Selena were teaching their stars how to dance. That being said, having been in the military, I did have an issue with the whole Marines letting Bret leave to go and be on a dancing show…but hey, I can try to suspend disbelief right?

Unfortunately, while I liked the premise of the story, it featured one of my least favorite tropes in the romance genre (don’t worry, I’m not going to say what it is). I honestly think that the story could have done without it – more as a second chance type romance, than an angsty one that resulted. I also felt that the authors descriptions of the judges on the show were almost exactly like the 3 on the real-life show – albeit with different names – the crusty old judge, the flamboyant choreographer and then sultry woman…aka, Len, Bruno and Carrie Ann. but I didn’t let myself be too distracted by that.

While there were a few weaknesses in the story, I am intrigued enough that I want to read the second one when it is released and I’ll be checking out more work by the author in the future. I’d give the book 3.5 stars and would recommend it to people who like cute contemporaries that are a tad angsty.